1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a data storage device, and more particularly, to a method for managing a storage area of a data storage device.
2. Related Art
Recently, use of computing devices has become more ubiquitous leading to a computing environment in which computer systems are used anytime and anywhere. Accordingly, the use of portable electronic devices such as mobile phones, digital cameras, and notebook computers has rapidly increased. In general, these portable electronic devices use a data storage device using memory devices. The data storage device is used as a main memory device or a secondary memory device of the portable electronic device.
The data storage device using memory devices includes no mechanical driver. Thus, the data storage device has excellent stability and durability, exhibits a high information access speed, and has small power consumption. The data storage device having such advantages may include a USB (Universal Serial Bus) memory device, a memory card having various interfaces, a solid state drive (SSD) and the like.
As more and more portable electronic devices are used for storing large files such as music files and video files, the data storage device is required to have a large storage capacity. The data storage device includes a plurality of memory devices to increase storage capacity. In the data storage device including a plurality of memory devices, a high operating speed as well as a large storage capacity is one of the important characteristics of the data storage device.
The data storage device may include a plurality of memory devices to secure a large storage capacity. In particular, the data storage device may include multi-level cell memory devices capable of storing two or more-bits of data per cell. In some cases, the data storage device including multi-level cell memory devices may use a buffer program method to secure a high operation speed. For example, the multi-level cell memory device of the data storage device may be divided into a buffer area and a main area. Furthermore, the data storage device may program input data into the buffer area, and then program the data programmed in the buffer area into the main area during an idle time.
In the data storage device using the buffer program method, when any one of the buffer area and the main area is worn, it may have an effect on the lifetime or reliability of the data storage device. Therefore, it is very important to manage the wear level of these areas.